Elpida may acquire Taiwanese DRAM makers

Analysts believe Elpida may be considering buying Taiwanese DRAM makers to strenghten its position. The Japanese memory maker is the third largest DRAM maker in the world behind Samsung and Hynix.

An attempt to weld several small Taiwanese DRAM makers together into a single entity using government money fell apart earlier this year. Taiwan Innovation Memory Co., having been rejected as a suitable case for government investment as a DRAM company, is trying to reinvent itself as a NAND flash supplier.

This has left Powerchip Technology Corp., ProMOS Technologies Inc. and Winbond Electronics Corp. as being essentially too small to keep up in the capital intensive DRAM business and among possible targets for Elpida.